What happens in Vegas
by Snoot37
Summary: Tony's drinking and womanizing are legendary, and thankfully he's always had Pepper to pick up the pieces for him. But what will he do when he crosses the line and it's Pepper who pays the price? Will he finally get himself straight? Pre-IM 1. Warning for adult situations. Warning for non-consensual situations.


OK, first of all, I didn't write this story. I am posting these stories for a friend who is actually a published author, but for some reason I can't fathom, doesn't want people to know she writes fanfiction. When she has writer's block, she writes Iron Man fanfiction. Needless to say, she's suffered quite the writer's block at the moment. She's got something like 6 stories to post. It's a good thing her publisher doesn't know this is how she's spending her time, rather than finishing her book she's supposed to be working on.

My friend is super impressed with all the kind feedback for the other stories I'm posting for her. She lives for that stuff, so keep it coming! Thanks for the support all! And she has several more stories coming, she says!

Rated R for adult themes

Warning for non-consentual situations.

What happens in Vegas...

The shrieking ring of the hotel phone next to her bed jarred Pepper out of what otherwise would have been a very deep sleep. She groggily forced her eyes to open and her still foggy brain to comprehend what was happening. Rubbing her eyes and groaning, she looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It read 1:50 am.

_'Something better be on fire'_ she thought, her ire rising.

Pepper Potts considered sleep to be a commodity more valuable than gold. In her job as Tony Stark's personal assistant, her hours were the hours he kept. And Tony Stark didn't keep normal hours. If he went to sleep at all it was around 3 AM, after which he normally slept until well after noon. If he was in what Pepper called "genius mode," a frenzied, feverish, heightened state of inventing and creating, he could sometimes go as much as three days without sleeping or eating at all. He would forget that there was a world outside of his workshop, and if it weren't for the fact that she had to slam a sandwich down in front of him and order him to eat, he would probably pass out from malnutrition or Redbull overdose. Pepper often wondered if the personal assistants of Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci faced similar problems with the geniuses they were in charge of caring for. She could only imagine da Vinci's personal assistant stepping in front of his paintbrush hovering in front of the Mona Lisa ordering him to fucking eat something for the 10th time. And when he wasn't inventing, Tony was jetting off to all parts of the world.

She never knew if, waking up in her own bed in her apartment in Malibu, whether or not she would go to sleep in that bed that night. At the drop of a hat, she could be on a plane to Dubai for a party or to Hong Kong for a scientific conference in which Tony would be giving a presentation. She had learned to make her workspace mobile, carrying her laptop, tablet and BlackBerry in her satchel everywhere she went. She might start off in her office at Stark Industries and end up at Tony's house in the living room, typing out emails at one in the morning. She got sleep whenever she could afford it, which was not often. She had learned to fall asleep on Tony sofa, and all manner of hotel rooms around the world, stretched out across three seats in the back of Tony's jet, and even at her own desk in her office at the Stark Industries Main building. So when she finally found a few hours to herself in a four star hotel in the middle of Las Vegas, the only thing she wanted to do was relax.

On this particular trip, she had had the rare opportunity of going to her room early. Usually, on trips like these, she spent most of the time shadowing Tony around the casino as he dropped millions of dollars on craps tables and picked up show girls for personal entertainment later in his room. She wasn't alone, though, because Happy Hogan and his two best personal security guys, Marcus and Thomas, were usually along for the ride too. Between the lot of them, they usually were able to keep Tony safe as he cavorted around. This time, they were in Las Vegas purely for the blackjack tournament being held at the Bellagio. Pepper always liked the Bellagio because of the fountains out front. She never got tired of watching the water show set to Bocelli's "Time to say goodbye." Although Tony preferred the Luxor, because the tournament was held at the Bellagio, he had no qualms about staying there. After a fairly expensive dinner at the restaurant, in which Tony treated everyone who came with him, he had told Pepper to go ahead and go back to her room, unless she wanted to join him on a more personal note, which she had rolled her eyes and ignored. He didn't intend to go anywhere else later that night, and would likely not need her help with anything. Plus, she suspected that Happy might have told him privately that she was getting overworked and over exhausted. Gratefully, she had jumped on the opportunity and had retreated back to her own room. After soaking for an hour in the Jacuzzi tub and washing her hair thoroughly with her favourite rose scented shampoo, she had settled down in her favourite pair of pyjamas for a night of Masterpiece Theatre and excessive reading on her new Kindle Paperwhite. She had dropped off to sleep around 9:30, which was an insanely early time for her. Now, here it was only a little over three hours later, and she had hardly gotten any sleep at all. To say she was irritated would have been an understatement.

Hiking herself up on one elbow, she reached over and snatched the phone off its cradle. "Hullo?" She croaked out with a small sense of irritation.

"Hello Ms Potts? I'm terribly sorry to bother you at this hour, but this is the concierge. I'm afraid we have a small situation with Mr. Stark down here in our lobby," the man on the other end of the line said.

Pepper felt herself physically flinch. A situation involving Tony that required someone to call her at this time of the night when he was supposed to have three of his security detail following him could not be good.

"What happened?" she asked, coming fully awake.

"Well," the man said, with some hesitation, "it seems Mr. Stark is on the verge of passing out and unable to get up to his room on his own. We really can't touch him, it's against policy about how to interact with our guests. But he is in need of assistance."

Now Pepper was totally confused. "He is supposed to have three security men with him, where are they?" she asked. Where was happy?

"We don't know ma'am," the man said. "He appears to be alone at the moment."

Pepper swung her legs off of the bed and stood up. No Happy or Thomas or Marcus and no girl to bring upstairs. Now she knew that something was seriously wrong.

"I'll be right down," she said and hung up. She snatched her BlackBerry up off of the charging pad where it rested next to her Kindle and tablet computer and tapped out a frantic text to Happy.

_Where are you? Tony's in some kind of trouble. _

She fired off the text and then made phone calls to the rooms where Happy and the other two security men were staying. There was no answer. Fear started to settle into the pit of her stomach. Tony was a high-profile celebrity CEO of a Fortune 500 company. While he never seem to have a care about his own safety, given his propensity for partying in all kinds of locations and conditions, it was the kind of thing that Pepper and Happy talked about constantly. The words "Lindbergh baby" always came to mind. People like Tony were always the target of kidnapping attempts. With no security to watch his backside and no answer from their rooms, she had to wonder just what the hell was going on and what she might be walking into.

_'Was that phone call even from the concierge_?' she now wondered. Was there some kind of elaborate trap going on?

She changed out of her pyjamas and put on the clothes she had set aside for tomorrow morning, a workout shirt, yoga pants and her sneakers. She had intended to take advantage of the Bellagio's elaborate gym first thing in the morning. She pulled on over her workout shirt her favourite thin T-shirt with a hood, grabbed her BlackBerry and room key and the spare key to Tony's room, then headed downstairs. However, with caution in mind, she got off on the seventh floor and took the stairs the rest of the way down. If it was indeed a trap and someone was looking for her on the elevator, she didn't intend to be on it.

She'd need not have worried, however. When she got to the lobby, she looked around carefully and didn't see any signs of trouble. She did, however, see the knot of security men off to a corner, and headed in that direction. One saw her and stepped into her path, thinking she was just a passerby who was interested. Pepper had to admit to herself that she didn't really look professional in her workout outfit and hoodie. But the man she recognized as the head of security stopped the first man telling him "It's okay she's for him."

Pepper moved past the two men and glanced down at the figure sitting in the easy chair. Tony looked, for all the world, like he was asleep. He was still wearing his rosy sunglasses and silk shirt, an outfit that Pepper really didn't like on him at all. She always thought it made him look like a cheap pimp, which she suspected was the look he was going for. She glanced around and confirmed that there was no sign of Happy or the two security men. She reached down and forcefully shoved her sleeping boss.

"Tony, Tony, wake up!" she said. "Come on, wake up, you can't nod off here."

His eyes fluttered, and he flinched away from her shaking. He blinked a few times, and then looked up at her. It took him a minute before his eyes focused and recognized her, but when he did, he grinned his customary smirk.

"Hey Pep," he slurred. "I thought you didn't like late night parties?"

"I don't," she said through clenched teeth. "Which is why you're getting your ass off that chair and coming with me. It's two in the morning and we have a busy day tomorrow."

"Why Ms. Potts, I thought you'd never ask," he said with a slight leer.

She ignored his implication and asked "Where's Happy and the guys? They know better than to leave you like this. And I thought you'd hooked up with someone by now. What are you doing alone?"

"Hey can't a guy have some alone time?" he said with his smile faltering. "I gave Thomas and Marcus the night off. They didn't want to leave, but I kind of had to tell them to, so they hit the casino."

Pepper sighed and shook her head and made a mental note to chew them both out later. "And Happy?" she asked. "It would take a lot more than you ordering him to get him to leave you alone like this."

"Yeah, well, about that," said Tony. He shook his head hard as if he were trying to clear it, and said, "well I picked up these two girls, they were friends. I exerted my usual charm and they were all for it, of course. But they couldn't decide which one gets me, and they weren't into a threesome. Too bad. Probably would have been fun."

Pepper put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. Although she made an extreme effort to not judge Tony for his actions, she really hated it when he did things like this. She knew he could be a better man than what he was being, and frankly she thought this kind of behaviour beneath him. She also couldn't help but wonder what Maria Stark would think of her son if she could see the way he lived now. It always made her uncomfortable when he talked so openly of things like this.

"Anyway," he continued, "they ended up flipping a coin. That's actually never happened before, people point tossing over me. So, I got the winner and Happy got the loser."

"You're not serious," said pepper.

Tony shrugged and started to nod off again.

"Oh no you don't!" she said shaking him back awake. "Why aren't you with the girl you picked up?"

"Well," Tony said sheepishly. "I might have, sort of, said something she took a little offense to. Plus, I guess she wasn't too cool with me being so staggering drunk that I have a hard time walking. So she slapped me across the face, left me here, and took off."

"That's when we found him," said the security man. "We guessed his two security guards are somewhere in the casino, and the bodyguard is, err...occupied. So then we called you."

Pepper shook her head at the entire situation, but fought down a grin. It wasn't often that Tony was so thoroughly derailed like this, or that Happy scored when Tony didn't. Happy was pretty dedicated to his job, so it couldn't be easy to see all the women fall all over Tony without much of a chance himself, or having to make do with the leftovers. He seemed a good sport about it most of the time, so Pepper really couldn't be too mad at him for taking advantage of the situation. For all Happy knew, Tony was happily bedded down with the girl with his guys having a much needed night off, and Pepper herself supposedly asleep upstairs. She could snip at him later, but for now, she fired off a text on her BlackBerry to Happy, letting him know that she had the situation under control, in the event he actually thought to look at it in the next couple of hours. As for Tony getting rejected and slapped, she wondered if security would let her have a copy of the video of that. She had an overwhelming urge to set it as her screensaver. But for now, she had to get him upstairs and away from the cameras that would undoubtedly be showing up, if they hadn't already. The paparazzi never sleep, and as it was she was, going to have to be on the phone to her administrative PR representative, Charrisa, in the morning to get her to prepare some sort of statement if that sort of thing hit the tabloids.

"Okay, Tony," she said, "you had enough fun for one night. Come on, upsey daisy." She grabbed him by the arm and pulled, but he was like deadweight. She nodded to one of the security men, giving him permission, and he moved to help her get Tony to his feet. She half expected him to protest or pull away, but he didn't. But once he was standing, he staggered a bit, so she flipped his arm over her shoulders and her own around his waist to support him. He tried to make a smart ass comment, but the words came out so slurred she couldn't make them out.

"Thank you, gentlemen" she said to the gathered knot a security men. "I've got him from here." A look of visible relief passed over all their faces as they watch her half drag, half stumble Tony towards the elevator. Her face turned red as people stopped to stare and point. Tony was recognizable enough to where she knew that at least a few of them had recognized him. And while she was doing this, she was also trying to ignore the feeling of him pressed up against her and the smell of his Old Spice aftershave. She had always loved Old Spice and she was having a hard time ignoring the rush of warmth starting up her spine.

_'Stop it'_ she told herself forcefully, _'don't you start too.'_

It was damn near impossible not to be attracted to Tony Stark. From the moment she first laid eyes on him up into the present moment, she waged a constant battle against her hormones when she was around him. From the start, she was determined to maintain a professional demeanour and not give into his charms. Tony's prowess with the ladies was nearly legendary, and it was just assumed that any woman working with him was sleeping with him. She had worked as his personal assistant for three years before the whispering and gossiping around the office had finally died down. And that was died down, not stopped entirely. So far she had worked for him for eight years and had maintained her integrity. It had taken a long time to build up respect as a woman working for Tony Stark, which included having to prove her competence as a businesswoman who also just happen to be single and attractive, and working for the most eligible playboy in America. She knew that the second she gave in to him, all of that hard work would be gone.

Not that he made it easy on her. After the first couple of years, he had stop directly propositioning her, and instead had gone to simply teasing and joking with her. She didn't find this any easier, however, for she found that the banter was more of a turn on then his direct propositioning. And dammit, he was handsome. But she simply could not give in. She knew that when she did, her job with him would be over. And she didn't want that, because over the years, he had also become her friend. She knew that he needed her, especially in times like these, but if she went to bed with him, she would not be able to stay. And frankly, she feared for him with her not nearby, handling his problems. And so, she laughed off or shrugged off his banter and innuendos, and kept her distance. The only luxury she would afford herself was some very elaborate and private fantasies about the two of them on a beach somewhere. But even these fantasies were dashed every time she had to get some other woman's dry cleaning and a ride home the next morning. She had enough conflicted feelings about her boss, she certainly didn't need to be entertaining anymore while her arms were around him helping him up to his room. If only he didn't smell like Old Spice.

He was leaning on her heavily and threatened to stumble nearly every third step.

"You know," he said in a fuzzy voice. "I've waited nearly 8 years to find out what your arms would feel like around me. But I bet your legs around me would feel even better."

"Shut up, Tony" she said firmly, as they made it to the elevator. She jammed her elbow into the button for the penthouse level. Then she felt Tony start to slowly crumble to the floor. She twirled and grabbed him with both hands and threw her weight under him to hold him up.

He whimpered, but managed to stay upright. His head lolled on her shoulder and his arms went limply around her. She tried to shake him off, but he was leaning even more heavily on her for support, and was fast turning into deadweight. Mercifully, the elevator doors opened at that very moment, and she yanked him inside. She propped him up against the wall and hit the button for the penthouse level. It's seemed to her like the doors took forever to close, so long that she started to hit the button a couple of times. A small crowd had gathered and was staring into the elevator. It seemed to her like the doors were stalling on purpose just to mock her. Finally, they started to close and just as they did, Tony sank to the floor.

"I don't feel so good," he groaned, turning slightly green.

"Oh hell no," said Pepper sternly. "Anthony Stark, I swear to you, that if you puke on the floor of the Bellagio elevator, I'm handing in my resignation first thing in the morning. I'm not kidding either. You will not throw up in here."

He whimpered again and turned to the side, clearly about to give in.

"Just hang on for three more minutes," she said. "We're almost to your room."

He swallowed hard and took a deep breath and then slowly nodded. If the elevator doors had taken forever to close, it seemed now like the elevator itself took forever to reach its destination. After what easily seemed like a half a year, the stupid doors finally opened onto the penthouse level. Wincing slightly at the notion that her boss was likely going to puke on her for it, she reached down and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"Come on, Tony," she said pulling him up right. He groaned at the sudden motion and swallowed hard again. He couldn't get to his feet, however, so she had to pull him crawling out of the elevator. Once in the hallway, she bent down and put an arm under his chest.

"Come on, Tony, get up, I can't carry you, you're too heavy."

He didn't respond, but sat there on all fours, breathing heavily.

"Tony, please help me out here," she pleaded. "I'm not Happy, I can't carry you."

Stiffly and slowly and with a considerable amount of help from her, he managed to get to his feet. He pressed his lips shut tightly and squeezed his eyes, fighting the wave of nausea that threatened to overtake him. He had only just been able to hold it together in the elevator with the sensation of moving up and down. But it felt like Pepper was jerking him all over the place, and it wasn't helping. He really didn't want to upchuck his $60 meal all over the hallway, or her for that matter, anymore than she did. He was pretty sure handling that was not in her job description. Come to think of it, she handled a lot of things for him that were not in her job description. Like coming to rescue his sorry drunk ass, for starters. She had been with him for eight years, and for the life of him he could not figure out why she stayed. Prior to hiring Pepper as a personal assistant, he went through them like Kleenex. If they didn't end up in his bed and quit the next day, then they quit out of exasperation. But she had not. She was the only person he had ever met that was just as stubborn as he was. On top of all that, she was very good at her job. Stubborn and competent and could deal with him. He had a minor fear every day that she showed up for work that it might be her last. He kept waiting for the day she finally got fed up and stormed out for good. That day hadn't come before now, but he wondered mildly if it just had. Puking on her would be a pretty good way to find out, and he had no intention of doing so.

Stumbling under his weight, Pepper managed to drag him to the door of his penthouse suite. She pushed him up against the wall and he leaned heavily on her for support as she dug out the spare key to his room from her pocket. Pushing her left shoulder against his chest to hold him up, she swiped the key and opened the door.

"Come on, we're here," she said, dragging him through the doorway. They both overcompensated and went stumbling through the door onto the floor. Pepper managed to brace herself as she hit the ground, but Tony wasn't so lucky. His shoulder hit the floor before the rest of him, hard enough to bruise. He was going to feel that the next day. Rolling to her side, Pepper kicked the door shut. Cursing under her breath, she quickly pulled her knees under her and jumped to her feet.

She heard Tony whimper "uh oh" under his breath, and she knew she had only seconds. Grabbing him by both shoulders, she yanked him upwards and half dragged, half pushed him into the bathroom. They made it without a second to spare. In college, Pepper had never been much of a partier. Even back then, she was always the bookish and studious one, although she did accompany friends on nights out. While she wasn't always the designated driver, she was frequently enough to have a sense of déjà vu about this entire scenario. More than once in college, she had hauled a drunk friend to the bathroom and helped them over the toilet, and had just shrugged it off as a normal part of the college experience. But she honestly never thought that it would be a part of her job description in a six figure salary for a Fortune 500 company to go from being a respected businesswoman to the person who held her drunk boss' head over the toilet as he puked from drinking too much in a casino. This was not the first time she had had to do this for Tony, and she knew it would not be the last. She offhand wondered if this was what it was like to be a parent with a sick kid. She had often listen to her friends and coworkers with small children tell about having to clean up pee and poop and puke without a single shred of squeamishness that the single people with no kids seemed not to have. Now, she sort of understood. While childless people might comment to themselves _'oh I could never do something like that'_, in practice you do it, because you have to and because there's nobody else will. That thought crossed Pepper's mind as she held Tony over the toilet. Who else would do this besides maybe Happy or maybe even Rhodey. Its seemed to be her a lot in life. No matter what people might say about her position in Tony's life, or what they may gossip about, she certainly earned her salary.

He finally stopped heaving and collapsed on the floor of the bathroom. Pepper stayed over him for a few minutes, watching him whimpering, making sure he didn't have a round two coming up. When she was satisfied he was really done, she flush the toilet and hauled him over to the sink. She handed him cups of water and Listerine in rapid succession to rinse his mouth out with.

"I should probably give you a raise for this, huh?" said Tony weakly.

"I don't think you can afford with this is worth," Pepper quipped. "Come on, let's get you in bed."

"Oh Ms. Potts, I thought I'd never see this day," Tony said predictably.

Pepper didn't answer; she simply turned him towards the bedroom and pushed gently. Without a further word, he complied. He collapsed onto the bed and rolled onto his side. Pepper looked down at him and sighed. Now came the hard part. Trying to avoid his grin,she pulled his shoes off. Then she went to work on unbuttoning his shirt.

"You know, Pepper…" Tony began.

"Shut up, Tony," she interrupted. "Just don't. It's two in the morning. I'm not in the mood."

"You're never in the mood, ice queen," he grumbled. "You just need a good thawing out."

Maybe it was because it was so late and she was still half asleep herself, or because after eight years of this crap, she was reaching her limit, but even though she had years ago learned to shrug off Tony's behaviour and outrageous comments where someone else might have sued him for sexual harassment at this point, her usual mental armour was not functioning and that one stung. She paused for only a second, and then lashed out, flipping him onto his back and pinning him down at his shoulders. She was nowhere near as strong as he was and he could've pushed her off easily, but her anger had given her an unnatural amount of force and he got the point.

"Anthony Stark, let's get something straight right now. I am not one of your cheap sluts and I never will be. I don't put up with that kind of talk from anyone, not even you. You ever talk to me that way again and I swear I'll quit. I'm not joking. Then I'll slap your ass with sexual harassment lawsuit that will make your head spin. Have I made myself clear?" She glared daggers at him

His eyes had widened in surprise at her harsh tone, but in typical Tony fashion, he tried to laugh it off. "No you're still a little fuzzy around the edges he joked."

Pepper's eyes narrowed and she took a sharp intake of breath ready to let him have it, when he said, "Clear as a bell, Pepper. Get it? Bell pepper?"

"Hysterical," she said as she got his to shirt off.

"You wouldn't be disappointed, you know," he said.

"You do realize that you are a textbook case of sexual harassment, right?" she asked. "Remember that mandatory hour-long training session that all-Stark employees had to undergo last year? We could have just held your picture up and told everybody all of your pick up lines and situations you have gotten into with coworkers, and I could have just told everybody don't do that, and we would have covered everything. Do you even care that you're acting like an ass?"

"'Ass' is in the eye of the beholder," he said. "I could show you."

She put her hands on her hips and looked down at him and said, "Tony, what is it going to take for you to close your mouth?"

He grinned and said, "Your mouth on it, or possibly other places. I'm not picky."

"No," she said firmly. "Not going to happen. Save your pick up lines. They don't work on me."

She had managed to get his pants undone and off of him without too much trouble or comment from him having sufficiently distracted him in the process. Thank God he was actually wearing boxers this time. Sometimes he didn't, knowing that she would have to deal with him later. She had never been able to fully control the traitorous blush that would always start to burn her face like the one that was starting now. Sometime she really cursed her pale skin tone for giving her away when she was trying so hard not to give Tony more ammo.

He usually bantered with her and this was nothing new. But usually he gave up after a while. He was used to being shot down by Pepper, but perhaps it was because he had been shot down by his most recent attempt at a booty call tonight, or because he might also be a little high from smoking something, (she couldn't tell, he seemed worse than usual) that he was putting extra effort into her this time. But her narrowed eyes and hands on her hips made it plain that she was not going to give in.

The joking demeanour suddenly vanished from his eyes and his own eyes narrowed as he looked at her.

"Why?" he asked in a low, almost dangerous voice. "Eight years and you never said yes once. Not once. Why?"

The look in his eyes had shifted, from drunken playfulness to something darker. Pepper, for the first time since she had known him, suddenly felt afraid of him.

She started to take a hasty step back. But he was too fast for her. His hands shot out and grabbed her by the hips. Pepper yelped in surprise as he yanked her forward towards him, the tops of her legs catching the edge of the bed as he pulled her forward and off her feet on top of him. But before she could plant her hands and push herself off of him, his torso and hips powerfully twisted and pulled her completely over him onto the bed, and under him.

He pinned her down, grabbing her wrists as she tried to push him off, and pinning them down on either side of her shoulders. Before she could get a knee up to hit him in the groin, he had rolled side to side and forced both of his knees between hers, kneeling between her legs, using his hips and lower body weight to pin her hips to the bed.

Pepper was frantic, trying with all her might to twist out from under him, but for being so thoroughly inebriated, her boss was pretty strong and determined. No amount of pushing, pulling, arching her back or twisting could get his dead weight off of her. And her movements and struggling were turning him on. Feeling Pepper writhing beneath him was causing his own breathing to speed up and an uncomfortable, insistent pressure to start pooling in his groin.

Pepper was in a confused state of shock, panic and anticipation. Klaxon alarms were going off in her head, and she remembered the time she and several girlfriends from work had gone to see Titanic in the theatre. She swore she could hear a sailor screaming "iceberg dead ahead, captain!" in the back of her mind. She was in shock, unable to believe this was really happening, that she was beneath Tony on a bed, he was inebriated past the point of reasonable self-control, and could seriously be crossing a line that couldn't be uncrossed in the next few minutes. On the other hand, she would be lying if she said she wasn't turned on by him, by the situation. She had spent the better part of eight years pretending he wasn't the most gorgeous man on earth to her, that his intelligence and banter didn't turn her on. She managed to keep it professional around him, but her daydreams and regular dreams were frequently flooded by his image in her mind. His pheromone scent, mixed with whiskey and Old Spice flooded her nostrils, making her head swim, as his lips brushed over her ear. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling the floral scent if her shampoo, and she gasped when she felt his erection hard against her hip.

"Don't tell me you don't want me, Pep," his voice rasped into her ear. "I know you do. Don't pretend."

He pushed his hardness between her legs, rubbing her and sending spikes of

pleasure swirling below her navel. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply.

"I can feel you, you know," he said. "You're hot."

He was right. He was only wearing his boxers and she was only wearing her yoga pants with some rather thin underwear. There really wasn't much between them. She knew he could feel the heat in her groin through her pants the same way she could feel his hot and throbbing pressure. She felt the dampness between her legs, that always seemed present when she was just around, him kick into serious overdrive in preparation.

"Wanting you is not the problem," she replied. "That's not it at all."

Without warning, his eyes met hers. Throughout this whole situation and any time he tried flirting with her, she carefully ignored making eye contact with him. She knew that locking eyes with him was how he got even the most sane and rational woman to give up her soul to him. He had a smouldering gaze that could melt stone. She had seen women fall into that gaze so easily, it was a little frightening to watch. She had never known someone who could exert his will so easily over others with just a look. Knowing how attracted she was to him herself, she had resolved to never let herself fall into that look. She knew exactly how to avoid his eyes, but also when not to. This time he caught her by surprise and she couldn't look away.

"So you do want me, is that what you're saying?" he asked. She almost laughed at the surprised tone in his voice. Surely he couldn't be that insecure?

Not sure that this was the best response, she replied, "I'm a single, straight woman with a pulse, of course I do."

"Then what's the problem?" he asked, dipping his head down and brushing his lips along her neck. He pushed his hips against her again, rubbing his hardness into her cleft, causing her to shiver. She was pretty sure she felt her ovaries twist at that one. Her resolve and the walls she had built against him were weak as was, but they were quickly crumbling. She had to end this now or she wouldn't have the strength to say "no" any longer.

"The problem is I don't have one night stands and you don't have relationships," she retorted. "I'm not one of those floozies you fish for. I have too much to lose and nothing to gain. It's not worth it to me."

"I could change that," he said not really paying attention. His right hand released her wrist and moved to her lower thigh. She stifled a groan as he moved his hand across the top of her leg, and slowly down the inside, moving upwards. His lips brushed her jawline and hovered near her mouth. Another few centimetres and their lips would meet.

This was it. She either ended it here, firmly, or she gave in. She already knew the likely scenario of giving in. It would probably be amazing and spectacular, she would cry out in ecstasy, maybe even several times. But she knew in a matter of hours at most, it would be over and she would be as forgotten to him as all the other women he had ever been with. Then next week, he would find someone else to entertain him, and she would have to get that girl's dry cleaning and arrange a ride somewhere. And it would remind her that she had just been relegated to the same box in which these throwaway women were filed in his mind. Women he didn't respect and didn't even see it as human beings, but sexual objects to be used and discarded. He didn't respect them, and if he had anything resembling respect for her, it was hard earned over the eight years she had worked for him. It would be gone in a matter of minutes if she gave in. She had stopped denying to herself a while back that she was a little bit in love with him, but in the long run, she knew he was bad for her, and bad for her career or any attempts at being a professional. While every ounce of her being was screaming _'Just do it! Do it!'_ there was that one very small voice of reason still operating in the back of her mind. It won.

"Tony, no. No. Get off!" she said, a little less convincingly than she should have. She pushed her hands against his shoulders, trying to push him away.

It didn't work. He grabbed a hold of her wrist in and pushed her into the bed, keeping her from pushing him off, and ground against her even more forcefully. Whimpering, she felt the first rhythmic contractions of an impending orgasm, and moisture gathering between her legs, just from him rubbing against her. How earth shattering would actual sex with him be? Oh god, she wanted to find out! She wanted him as bad as he wanted her. But not like this.

"I want you, Pepper," he growled into her shoulder, "so bad. So bad it hurts."

"I know you do, Tony," she said. "But not like this. Get off me, now."

She didn't have much resistance left, just a thin thread. And she felt it starting to unravel, especially as he moved her hands so that his left hand held both of hers down over her head, and he moved his right hand down to her shirt hem and started to push it up. She felt his palm, hot on her belly, moving up her torso towards her breasts.

"Tony, no!" she nearly yelled. "I'm serious, get off!" She twisted, trying to throw him off, but it was no use. His fingertips danced along her ribs as if he were playing the piano, brushing the underside of her breast, then changed directions and started moving lower to the waistband of her thin yoga pants. She gulped for air as she felt his fingertips slip past the waistband and begin to move lower.

Frantic now, she arched her back, twisted and jerked, trying to throw him off, but it was no use, he was too heavy, and he was too drunk. He wasn't registering her struggling. Her writhing beneath him, in fact, was having the opposite effect, because it felt to him like she was in the throes of passion. That she actually was turned on by him was not helping. She knew she was sending him next signals. She needed to stop this before he stepped over the line he couldn't uncross.

"Tony!" she tried again desperately. "Please, stop. Seriously. Stop!"

His hand was now moving into her lower curls, his mouth on her neck, his breathing heavy and his member hard against her. He wasn't stopping. In another second, he would feel how wet she was and take it as an invitation to continue. With a sinking horror, Pepper realized the worst, that her boss, her friend, was too far gone and too inebriated to know what he was doing enough to stop. He was about to rape her.

_'Oh no,'_ she thought to herself. _'Please god no, not like this. Not like this. Don't let him do this. I won't be able to forgive him and he won't be able to forgive himself. This will destroy us both. Please no. Somebody help.' _

A sob escaped her throat and tears squeezed out of her eyes.

"No...no..." she whimpered mournfully. "Not like this." She choked out another sob and resigned herself to her fate, tears starting to flow.

And at that point, something finally registered in Tony's mind. Up until this point, his foggy brain had been convinced that her writhing and twisting were signs that she was getting into it. He barely heard her voice pleading for him to stop. But when he heard her sobs and saw the tears, he finally realized she was not enjoying it. She was crying. He was hurting her.

"Pepper?" he asked cautiously. "Are you ok?"

"No I'm not fucking ok!" She shot back, realizing he had finally come somewhat to his senses. "Get OFF NOW!"

Tony felt a sinking cold feeling in his chest as he finally realized what he was doing. He rolled himself off of her as fast as he could, shaking with dread at what he had nearly done. Then, to his horror, Pepper turned away from him, shaking violently, and crying as she curled into the foetal position as far away from him as she could get.

_'Oh shit. Oh shit,'_ he thought to himself. _'Now I've really done it.'_

Tony found it immensely disconcerting to be sitting on his knees on the bed as Pepper had curled up away from him, crying. It was at that point that he realized he had never seen her cry. And God knew she had had plenty of reason over these last seven years. He knew he was an insufferable bastard to deal with. He did a lot of things on purpose that he didn't have to just to get a rise out of her. He paid her to organize his life, and half the time he didn't show up for the meetings or sign the contracts she had spent so much time organizing for him. He made her deal with the women he brought home next morning, dragged her out of bed in the middle of the night to deal with this drunk sorry ass, ask her to do half of his work that he should be doing for this company while he partied, and through it all she had never quit. She still stood by him. Either she was incredibly loyal and determined, or she was a fool. And he knew it wasn't the second one. She never broke down, and never given in, even though she must have been beaten down emotionally several times.

That was why it was especially disconcerting now to see her crying and knowing he had caused it. She was his friend. His best friend. She knew everything about him, had seen him at his best and his worst, had seen him accept a congressional medal of honour, had caught him having sex with three women at once, had seen him invent the chip that would someday replace the microchip, had thrown him in the limo literally covering his ass with her jacket when he had once mooned the press, and still called him friend back. Now, she was curled up crying, afraid of him, because he had been seconds away from raping her.

He had never before been so thoroughly disgusted with himself. How could he have tried to do such a thing? He wasn't a rapist. He had always said he had no patience or tolerance for that kind of man. Such a man was so low he couldn't get laid on his own and had to force a woman to feel manly. Tony Stark had never wanted for female company and had never really ever been told no by a woman, and so it was an alien concept to him to need sex and power from someone so bad he would hold them down and take it. He didn't like being told no, or not getting his way, rare as that was. Sure, Pepper has been the only woman in years to turn him down repeatedly, but he had always told himself that was just Pepper being Pepper. He had told himself time and time again that he didn't need Pepper's attention; he could get any willing woman anytime he wanted. The problem was, he wanted Pepper and her constantly telling him no was not sitting well in his mind. Tony Stark was not used to not getting something he really wanted. But Pepper was one of the few people he actually called a friend. Was he so willing to lose her as a friend and colleague that he would do something like this simply because he was frustrated? Apparently so, if he was drunk enough.

Her crying had not ceased. He could still hear her muffled sobs from where she had buried her head in the pillow. God, it was horrible to hear her cry. He had seen Pepper weather some seriously difficult situations without so much as a twitch. It was a mournful sound, the cry of someone who had been utterly betrayed, hurt and had been left on her own to deal with it. His heart swelled with emotion. He wanted more than anything to take her pain away, take back what he had done, what he nearly had done.

He reached out to lay a hand in her shoulder, softly saying her name. His heart nearly broke asshe violently jerked away from him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Oh god Pep I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it."

She didn't answer, she just kept crying. He tried to touch her again, and again she jerked away. He felt tears coming to his own eyes for the first time in 20 years. The first time since his parents had died. They spilled out down his cheeks.

"Pepper," he whimpered, feeling her withdraw from him emotionally. He hadn't realized how much a part of him her mere presence was until, for the first time since him met her, she withdrew it and left him bereft.

He honestly didn't know what he was supposed to. Should he call someone? Should he try to find Happy? What was he supposed to say? He was pretty sure that she didn't want to stay there with him, but if she left, he knew that she was gone for good. Thankfully, her crying had started to subside to shorter sobs, and she seemed to be calming down.

Pepper was finally starting to come to herself again. Once she had finally stopped crying, then the panic started to set in, along with anger. She had to get out now. Shakily, she pushed herself up to a sitting position and swung her legs over the bed.

"Pepper?" Tony started hesitantly, but his stomach sank as she jumped off the bed and headed swiftly for the door. She stumbled, still too overwrought to walk completely straight.

"Pepper, wait!" Tony called desperately, knowing that if he let her walk out now, he would likely never see her again. She barely heard him. In all the years she had worked for him, been subject to his flirting and innuendos and outrageous behaviour, she had never been afraid of him until now. But this was a final straw. She was nearly to the door when Tony's moan of despair stopped her. Realizing she was really going to leave, and under these hurtful conditions, he had dropped back down to the bed in utter despair, now his own sobs filling the room.

He had had many moments of royally screwing up his life, there was no doubt. Before Pepper came, it had taken teams of lawyers to set some of his mishaps right again. From day one, Pepper had a way of setting his derailments back on track, covering him with a PR team, good security men who kept him out of the worst situations, and she was not above the occasional bribe. She not only handled his overnight guests the next morning, but he knew she secretly slipped Plan B pills to them in their morning coffee, and paid two private detectives to shadow those women for six months after to make sure they didn't return with a paternity claim a year later. She attended board meetings he should have, but didn't, she made sure million dollar contracts got signed, and she got him on departing planes at a reasonable hour, though almost always late. His life and company ran so much more smoothly with her in them.

Before tonight, he had never given much thought to the female employees he had bedded and then ignored the next day that ended up leaving after sleeping with the boss. He knew their supervisors complained to Pepper when those employees left, especially if they were good at their jobs, about having to replace them. It was never Tony's problem. But now, he really understood. Now it was Pepper. How could he have fucked up this bad? She wasn't replaceable. His disgust with himself, lying drunk, half naked and disgraced as his best friend stormed out was complete. He was a miserable excuse for a human being, genius or not, and he knew it. And now he was really going to be alone. Once Pepper left, he was pretty sure Happy would follow once he heard why she left. After beating the shit out of Tony, no less. Tony would welcome the ass beating. He deserved it. He had not cried since his parents' deaths. Now he cried as if he were dying. A part of him was.

Pepper paused at the door. She didn't know why. Any other woman would have been out by now, back in her own room, calling 911 and having him arrested for sexual assault. So why was she still here? Why did she stop at the door? Was she a fool? But the part of her that still considered him a friend, even still loved him, was still in awe of his brilliance, who knew an amazing man who hid under the guise of a spoiled playboy, stopped her from turning the door handle. Despite everything in her telling her to leave, to hell with him, she turned back to look at him. He was a piteous sight. Gone was the man GQ had called the sexiest man of the year, who other men envied and women, single and married, threw themselves at. Lying on the bed before her was a half-dressed alcoholic who used people and threw them away, who had sex with anonymous women because he didn't have a truly loving relationship with anyone, who could count the number of real friends on the fingers of one hand, who was so drunk he couldn't walk unassisted and had just thrown up a $100 meal on the bathroom floor of a $2,000 a night hotel room, right before nearly raping the only female friend he had, and now lay alone, crying on his bed like a baby. A homeless bum would pity the sight before her. At this moment, Tony Stark was the most non-enviable man on the planet. A man on death row would not swap places with him right now.

She sighed.

Why did she put up with this? She was never more disgusted with him than she was right now. She didn't have to deal with this. She turned again to leave. Tony's whimpering falling on her deaf ears as she forced herself to harden her heart. But before she could walk out, the strangest feeling came over her. It was an odd sensation, almost as if she wasn't alone with him in the room. Was someone else here? She whipped around, carefully scanning the room looking for evidence of someone else. There was no one. A heavy feeling settled on her shoulders and her mind was filled with a premonition. Suddenly she knew, though she didn't know how, that if she left him right now, the next morning he would not be alive. He was despondent enough over everything that happened tonight to be situationally suicidal. She didn't know how he would do it, sleeping pills, the pistol in his luggage, the bed sheet, but she knew he would. On a regular day he wasn't prone to suicidal thoughts if he had a bad day, but he was drunk, maybe even high, despondent, and nearly raping her had proven his judgement and self-control were compromised. Suddenly she was afraid. Afraid of her premonition, and afraid of, and for him.

She seemed to feel a presence, somewhat female, in her mind saying _"don't leave him. He'll be gone by morning. Don't leave him." _She didn't recognize it, but she listened.

She turned back and slowly, cautiously, and walked to his bedside. She was still jumpy over what had just happened and she didn't want to risk a repeat. She stood just out of reach, silently until his own sobs started to quiet and he realized she was there, had not left him. His eyes wet with tears, he looked up at her foggily.

"Tony, why do you go these things? Why?" she asked with her voice edging on despair. "You're so much better than this. You're a genius, you're a visionary. You should be up there with Einstein and Da Vinci. Why do you drink yourself into a stupor and act like a sailor on shore leave? I just don't get it."

Tony could barely believe she wasn't tearing him a new one. Could she really be standing there, still believing in him, after the events of tonight? And she was asking him the questions he'd hope to never have to answer.

"I don't know, Pep," he sniffed. "Guess it's better than sitting home alone."

He looked up at her, locking his bleary eyes with hers, then sat up, pushing himself up to a sitting position. His eyes fell as she took a hasty step back, still afraid of him. He pretended he didn't see.

"Can you answer me seriously?" he asked. "Why DO you stay? Nobody before you stayed longer than a month. You've stayed 8 years. I know I'm a bastard to deal with. I know it. I don't do it on purpose but I am. They either get fed up and leave or they fall into my bed, then leave. But you haven't done either."

Pepper thought for a second. She pulled out her BlackBerry and typed in something. After a few moments, she turned the screen around to show Tony the image of what looked like a Renaissance painting of an effeminate looking man.

"Do you know who this is?" she asked.

Tony shook his head. Pepper smiled slightly.

"This is Gian Giocomo Salai. Ring any bells?" Tony shrugged, it did sound vaguely familiar but he couldn't place it, so she continued, "He was the personal assistant and apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci."

Surprised Tony looked up at her. "Da Vinci?" he asked.

She nodded and continued, "Not long after I came to work for you, I was seriously wondering if I had made a mistake. I remember it was like three weeks into working with you and I was about to pull my hair out. Never in my life have I ever work for someone so self-centred and immature. You were setting up booty call number three that week, and naturally you were drunk. You had missed two meetings and had ignored the schedule that I spent an hour setting up for you, and it seemed to me like you were determined to crash the company just in that one week. It made me look like I wasn't even trying to do my job, and on top of all that you wouldn't stop flirting with me. You didn't even try to hide the fact that you are ogling my legs."

Tony winced knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"Anyone else would've left," she said. "Everyone else did. Nobody thought that I would last even a month. Like all your other personal assistants, all around the office people just assume you only hired me because my looks and because how easy you thought it would be to give me in your bed. Everyone else you ever hired for that position, those were the only requirements they needed. Didn't matter if they could actually do the job or not. But I was determined to do the job and to be different. I'm better than just a pretty face on a rich man's arm. All those girls you brought home, all they are is just pretty ornaments, there's nothing there. Once all that beauty fades, then what will they have? Nothing. Well that's not going to happen to me. I was determined to be a career woman even in spite of my boss. But it wasn't easy. I can't tell you how many nights of lost sleep I have lost over you, or how many times, especially in the first six months, that I went home in tears. I started wishing there was some kind of support group for people like me, people had to deal with strange, eccentric and highly intelligent, not to mention jackass, bosses. Of course there's no such thing, there's only one Tony Stark."

Tony was listening to her fascinated. He had never heard her talk so candidly before. "If it was such torture," he asked, "then why did you stay? And what does that Renaissance man have to do with it?"

She said, "I knew there was no support group I could turn to, but I did wonder about other people, other geniuses in the past history. I couldn't help but wonder if da Vinci or Einstein or Tesla were as incorrigible as you. Because I don't say that arbitrarily, you deserve to be alongside those men. You're so smart they can't even measure your IQ. No matter how horrible you were those first couple of months, I watched you as you were working on your projects, and I knew I was watching a master at work. I can't describe it, Tony. When you're in your element, in your zone, you work miracles with materials other people just play with. Watching you create the next integrated circuit board, well, I have to wonder what it would've been like to watch to da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa. Watching you work was a little bit like with that must be like."

Tony felt the small little flame igniting his heart at her words. He knew Pepper didn't give that kind of praise just off-the-cuff. If she said it, she must truly mean it.

"Then, I started to wonder," she said, "about those geniuses who did these great things. I couldn't help but wonder who was reminding da Vinci to pay his taxes and answer that letter from the prince while his mind was occupied with painting the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. I even went to the library and started researching geniuses just so I could try to understand you. I know your mind doesn't work the way everyone else's does. You're so far ahead of everybody that it must be really frustrating to have to slow down so the rest of us can keep up with a simple conversation. Because your mind is so consumed with all the genius stuff it processes, I know there is no room for mundane things. I know you don't remember meetings and stuff for running the company, or even your own Social Security number, because your mind doesn't work that way. That's what I'm here for, that's my job. That's my purpose. I handle details of life for you so that you can BE Tony Stark. Just as Giacamo did for da Vinci. Imagine how differently things might have turned out if da Vinci had to be bothered with paying his taxes and answering his own door? Is he supposed to stop painting the Madonna on the Rocks just because somebody comes by peddling some goods? Who reminded him to put the paint brush down and eat every so often? Those great geniuses of the past like da Vinci were only able to be da Vinci because of their assistants. You're able to be what you are because I make it so. Of course, some people would argue that that was just enabling, given tonight."

She looked hard at him and he flinched.

"You want to know why I stay?" she asked. "It's because someday people will read about you in their history books the same way they do about Einstein and da Vinci. No one knows the names of these men's assistants, history doesn't require us to, and no one will remember me. That's fine, I don't care about being remembered. I just know that 100 years from now when they're reading about your exploits in school, it will all be possible because I was in the background helping. That, and I really don't have anywhere else to go, or anyone to go to."

Tony lay back on his pillow and looked up at her. He had never pegged Pepper as an idealist before. It was an interesting concept.

But then her eyes hardened. "But don't make the mistake of thinking that my idealism means I'm going to put up with the kind of crap you gave me tonight. I may be an idiot when it comes to you, but I'm not that big of an idiot. You don't ever treat me like that Tony, I'm serious. I'm still not sure I'm not done with you as it is."

Tony cast his eyes downward. He knew he had crossed the line. Many times. He was nothing short of the luckiest bastard alive that she hadn't left already and called the cops on him.

"What do you want me to do, Pepper? How can I make it up to you?" He was eager to hear of any way he might be able to erase his actions tonight, but he wasn't completely prepared for what she said next.

Pepper stared at him evenly. "You really want to make it up to me?"

He nodded.

"Well," she said, "the first thing you're going to do is tell Happy what happened here tonight. Then, you're going to go eight two-minute rounds with him in the ring once we get back home. And I'm going to watch. He's going to beat the crap out of you until *I* feel like you've learned your lesson."

Bowing his head, Tony nodded. That was a sentence he'd gladly take.

"Then," she said, "you're going to rehab. And not some 30 day bullshit at Passages either. That's not rehab, that's a spa vacation. Minimum 90 days, preferably longer. I want you to get some real help."

Tony's head snapped up. "Rehab?" he nearly yelled, "for three months? Three whole months?"

"Preferably six," she replied.

"SIX?! I can't be away from the company for six months!" he protested.

"You can and will if you don't want me to resign first thing tomorrow," she shot back. She was taking a risk and she knew it. She was gambling on just how important she really was to him. If she miscalculated that importance, she could quickly find herself without a job anyway.

"This isn't up for a vote. Suddenly now you're concerned about the company?" she asked. "You don't seem all that concerned when your getting wasted drunk like this. And what if I had been some other girl you did this to? Someone less willing to not press charges? You'd be in jail by now. You don't show up to most of the meetings you're supposed to and you don't handle the paperwork you're supposed to in a timely fashion. Obadiah and I are the ones who handle the day-to-day runnings of the company right now anyway. The only way you can really be full CEO of the company to get yourself straight, no matter how long it takes. We can handle things for six months. We don't even have to tell people where you're going, we can come up with a cover story. It can be done, but you have to agree. So what's it going to be Tony?"

Despite her habit of avoiding his gaze at times like these, she locked eyes with him. They glared at each other for full two minutes without saying a word. They both knew they were in a battle of the wills, and both of them were very strong-willed. Tony had never really had to contend with anybody as stubborn as himself. If he were honest, it was one of the things he loved about her. Secretly, he enjoyed it slightly that she was not so much of a pushover. He just didn't like it when he was at a disadvantage such as this. His first impulse was to flatly refuse, just so he would not have to give it to her. But the rational part of him that was still cognizant new that doing so meant that he might as well just hold the door open for her himself and let her leave permanently. He knew that, to make up for tonight and to keep his best friend around, this time he was going to have to swallow his pride and agree. He was the first one to look down and he slowly nodded.

"Ok, ok, Pepper," he said slowly. "I'll do it. I'll go just don't leave."

"You really will?" she asked.

"Yeah I really will, I promise," he said.

She let out a sigh of relief that she did not realize she had been holding. He didn't often promise things, but she knew that when he did, he usually followed through. Almost immediately, her mind began racing with the details that she would need to cover to ensure that this happened. She would have to find a place for him to be, as well as taking care of technical aspects of the company. She started making a mental to do list.

"I'd really rather go to Passages," he said. "I'll stay there for six months."

"Sure you will," she said. "Hell, I would stay there for six months."

"It's really rehab," he said, "they are certified."

"Yeah I know," she said, "but I'm going to examine all of our options. We will talk about it in the morning. Right now you need to sleep this off and I need to get some rest too. Get some sleep Tony."

She turned to leave.

"Will you stay with me?" he asked before he could stop himself.

"You know I won't," she said. "How can you even ask me that after all of this?"

"I don't mean it like that," he said hastily. "I mean I just don't want to be by myself right now. Will you stay at least until I fall asleep?"

Pepper knew she should say no. There had already been way too many lines of appropriateness that have been crossed tonight. But her odd premonition still echoed in the back of her mind. She wasn't convinced that if she left him, he wouldn't do something stupid. The prospect of having to go to rehab was probably not going to sit too well on him. It probably wasn't a bad idea to sit with him the rest of the night. It's not like she was going to go back to sleep after all this anyway.

"Okay, Tony," she said, "but only just this once, and only because you agreed to go to rehab. And no monkey business, got it?"

He nodded and lay his head back down. She shrugged and went back around the bed and grabbed the spare pillow off the other side, heading for the chair, preparing to settle down in it.

"You're not going to crash there, are you?" he asked.

"Well I'm not sleeping on the floor," she said.

"I'll sleep on the floor, then," he said, preparing to get up.

"No you won't," she retorted. "This is your room and you need serious sleep. Don't worry about me, I will sleep on the plane home."

"Pepper," he started. But she shushed him. "Go to sleep, Tony."

"I'm not going to sleep if you're going to spend the next couple of hours miserable, not after..."

He trailed off. Pepper swallowed an exasperated growl. She knew when to pick her battles.

"Get under the covers," she said, throwing the pillow back down. He looked at her quizzically, and then with surprise, as she crawled up onto the bed and leaned back against the headboard, pulling out her BlackBerry to start sifting through work emails.

"Wha...what are you...you're cool with this?" he asked in surprise.

She didn't look at him, but said, "you sleep under the covers, I'll stay on top of them. The twain shall not meet. And no, I'm not cold and I won't get cold. Now seriously, eyes closed, mouth shut, sleep."

Tony could scarcely believe it, and he knew not to comment any further. He laid his head back down, facing away from her and turned the light down to its lowest setting. For a half hour, they attempted to ignore each other as Tony tried to sleep and Pepper answered emails. Finally, she set the phone aside, and carefully lowered her head to the pillow. She was still jumpy from the incident previously, but Tony made no move in her direction, and the sheets separating them gave a measure of comfort. She faced away from him, but both lay still listening to the other breathe. Each was afraid to even twitch and give any indication of still being awake, even though both knew the other was still laying with eyes still open.

"Hey, Pepper?" he asked, "wasn't Giacamo da Vinci's gay lover?"

"Go to sleep, Tony," she snorted. He shut up.

It took a long time for Pepper to relax enough to let her guard down enough to sleep. She was still furious with Tony for nearly raping her, but since he agreed to rehab and seemed to be sobering up, her temper had simmered down enough to be cautious around him, but not necessarily afraid.

_'How lonely was he really?' _she wondered. How tortured was his soul that he sought to numb it with parties, alcohol, women and mindless spending? He never knew true romantic love, had no one besides her who even cared when he was sick. As a genius, he was so far ahead of everyone else that he must feel as if he were a PhD in a room full of kindergarteners trying to explain quantum physics just to have a simple conversation. No wonder he was bored enough to do these things. Then there was the matter of being orphaned so young, and having been raised by Howard Stark, who was probably the least parental person on the planet, may he and Maria rest in peace. She knew Tony's mother had tried her best, but how does one raise someone like Tony Stark? His parents' deaths had hit him badly. She wondered if anyone or anything would ever fill the void in his heart. Her ruminations eventually led her to close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

Tony took longer, trying to resist the urge to turn towards her and reach for her. There had already been enough of that mistake for one night. But god, she was alluring. He couldn't recall any time in his life where he was in bed with a woman and not having sex with her. Tony didn't have emotional relationships. He had physical ones. When he took a woman to his bed, it was fast and furious, clothes torn off in a matter of seconds and bodies joined only to satiate lust as fast as possible. His goal was to have an orgasm as fast as possible, preferably with the person he was with going over the cliff with him. He didn't cuddle either. Once it was over, he waited for the girl to fall asleep, and then he vacated his own bed to go sleep on his couch down in the shop. After so many years, it was nice and squishy and comfortable in all the right places. He'd stay there until Pepper got the girl out and on her way home the next morning. But to lie in bed next to a woman, not have sex with her, and lay there next to her for company and companionship, and that girl was his best friend Pepper? It was a novel experience for him. He wanted her bad. He felt such a strong emotion to her, one he would later identify as affection that he wanted to get it out in some way in physical expression. But he knew he couldn't. Not after what he had done earlier. Instead, he would have to be content with her presence. The odd thing was, he was. Any other woman he would need sex from. But with Pepper, he was fine with just her lying next to him. He finally drifted off to sleep.

Pepper woke the next morning to sunlight streaming through the windows and the sound of her BlackBerry buzzing on the table beside the bed. She became aware of the fact that she was snuggled into a cocoon of some sort and very light snoring just in front of her face, not her own. Her eyes snapped open and found that her face was mere inches away from Tony's. He was sound asleep wrapped up in the sheets and blanket with his forehead and hair just brushing her own. She seemed to be wrapped up in the comforter, lying on her side facing him. She vaguely remembered shivering and curling up into the foetal position, despite her telling Tony she would not get cold. At some point, he must have taken the comforter off himself and wrapped it around her. She had to admit, she found that slightly endearing. Her BlackBerry buzzed again and she turned to scoop it up. There were 12 frantic messages from Happy.

_Pep what happened, what did I miss?_

_Is Tony okay, I can't get him on his phone_

_Are you in your room, why aren't you answering your phone_

_Are you with Tony, do I need to come up there_

_I am so sorry I wasn't there when you needed me to what's going on_

_Okay, seriously can somebody answer me before I panic and call security? _

Instead of texting him back, she called him. He must have had his phone in his hand, because he answered on the first ring frantically.

After ensuring him that both of them were fine and Tony was okay, she filled him in on the night's events including the part where Tony pulled her on the bed with him, albeit an abbreviated version of that part. She told Happy that she had stayed to make sure that he didn't do something stupid. She had been afraid that he had been too drunk to be alone. Then she hinted that she was going to kill him, Thomas, and Marcus when she saw them again.

"Hap," she said tiredly, "if Tony gives you guys permission to take off on your own again, please make sure he's actually in his room before you do. This could have turned out badly."

"I'm sorry Pepper," he said. "It won't happen again. I already sent the girl home so I can meet you guys whenever. And sure, I'll be happy to beat the shit out of him for you."

"Save it for the ring. We'll be down for breakfast in a few minutes," she said. "Did you at least have fun?" she asked somewhat slyly.

Surprised, Happy answered "Um, yeah."

"Good," she said, "I hope it was worth it. Find Thomas and Marcus and let's get this day over with."

After she hung up, she turned at saw that Tony was awake, staring at her.

"Morning, sunshine," she said with more cheeriness than she felt. "You need a shower and about three aspirins."

He closed his eyes and whimpered.

"Now, now none of that," she said. She got up and went about getting his clothes together, starting a shower and finding him some aspirin. He still wasn't out of bed yet. She pulled the covers off of him and pulled him out of bed and pushed him towards the bathroom.

"I think you can get it from here," she said. He held his head and groaned.

"I'll come by to get you in an hour for breakfast," she said. "I've got emails to go through and I still need to get you registered in rehab. And I sense some very large coffees in both of our futures."

He smiled somewhat weakly.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then she turned to leave. When she got back to her room, she saw her unmade bed and everything just as she had left it the night before. It seemed like ages ago. She collapsed onto her bed and buried her face and her pillow and cried.

000000000000000000000000000000000

Surprisingly the day went pretty flawlessly all things considered about the night before. Tony was subdued at breakfast, but sober and he filled Happy in on the fact that he planned to go to rehab soon as they got home. Pepper spent the morning on the phone and got him set up to go to Passages in Malibu. She would've preferred a less cushy places that he didn't feel like he was on a vacation, but actually working to get better. But beggars couldn't be choosers. She called Obadiah Stane to fill him in on Tony going to rehab. Thankfully, he seemed quite pleased with the idea and promised her he would get the technical details hammered out over at the office to insure the company kept running without Tony. She would probably still have to bring him things to sign while he was in treatment, but it could be handled.

When they finally got back home, instead of going back to her apartment she went back to his house with him and watched Tony and Happy suit up for a boxing match in the ring. The men squared off and Pepper hit the bell. Just as happy went in for a good swing, Tony dropped his hands and allowed the punch to lay him out. Pepper winced, and happy stood back a little surprised. Tony got back up and squared off with happy again. Again, happy swung and Tony dropped his hands, allowing the punch to hit him square in the face. He staggered, but didn't fall.

"What are you doing, man?" asked Happy. "You're dropping your hands."

"I know," said Tony. "I'm not going to fight back. Just get it over with, Hap."

Happy, surprised, looked at Pepper, who was equally surprised. She stared at Tony and saw it in his eyes. He was disgusted with himself for what he had done. He welcomed this. He felt like he deserved it. For her, he would let himself be pounded into the mat and would not swing back. Pepper felt an odd sensation around her heart. She turned to Happy and nodded.

Thankfully, with Tony not fighting back, the rounds were short. At the end of the final round, happy retreated, panting heavily, to his corner, having done all the work. Tony lay flat on his back staring up at the ceiling, his ears ringing and his nose bleeding slightly. Suddenly Pepper's face came into view over him.

"You're not going to do that again, are you?" she asked.

"No," he whimpered. "I'm so sorry, Pep."

"Good," she said. "Now get your ass up and go shower, we're due at Passages at four."

Staggering to his feet, he ambled past her to Happy and held out his hand. Happy hesitated for a moment. He had been furious to learn what Tony had nearly done to Pepper and had been more than happy to take it out on Tony. But as the two men regarded each other, Happy smiled sadly and caught Tony up in a bear hug.

"Good luck, boss," he said sadly. Tony clapped him on the shoulder, then headed up to his room.

Pepper watched him pack. She drove him to the facility herself and sat with him outside in the car. She knew he was going to have to make the choice to get out.

He turned to look at her and said, "I am still really sorry about that night."

"I know you are," she said.

They looked at each other for a few moments longer. Then she said, "I'll come visit you when I can. And I'll be here to pick you up when it's time to go home."

"Thanks, Pepper," he said. "For everything." Then, he turned and got out of the car, shouldered his bag and walked away to the intake nurse who was waiting for him.

Epilogue

Rehab works for some people, but for others it doesn't work on the first try, or ever at all. Although Tony didn't stop drinking when he got out, it was never another night like that one, and he never touched drugs again. Pepper often wondered what it would take for him to get himself straight completely. Some people didn't straighten up until they really faced life on some kind of mortal level, like an illness or an accident. Some people didn't straighten out until they had someone else to live for besides themselves. She wondered if Tony would ever see that day. She wondered.

**"Coming Home"**

It's a four letter word  
A place you go to heal your hurt  
It's an altar, it's a shelter  
One place you're always welcome  
A pink flamingo, double wide  
One bedroom in a high rise  
A mansion on a hill  
Where the memories always will  
Keep you company whenever you're alone  
After all of my running  
I'm finally coming

Home - the world tried to break me  
I found a road to take me  
Home - there ain't nothing but a blue sky now  
After all of my running,  
I'm finally coming... Home

Well they say it's where the heart is  
And I guess the hardest part is  
When your heart is broken  
And you're lost out in the great wide open  
Looking for a map  
For finding your way back  
To where you belong  
Oh well that's where I belong

Home - the world tried to break me  
I found a road to take me  
Home - there ain't nothing but a blue sky now  
After all of my running  
I'm finally coming... Home

-Gwyneth Paltrow, "Country Strong"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, thanks for all the feedback on my other stories guys! The song above was sung by Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper!) in her movie Country Strong, where she played an alcoholic. I cried like a baby, and that movie and that particular song is actually what prompted this story. The song is perfect for it. If you haven't seen the movie or seen her perform the song, head over to YouTube right now and watch. I toyed a bit with having Tony actually go through with it, and the aftermath with him and Pepper. Then I decided I didn't want to do that to Tony, he really is noble at heart, even wasted. Instead, it became another story that I'm working on now and will hopefully be posted soon. I might still write that alternative version of this story, but I want to finish other stories first and maybe even the book I'm supposed to actually be working on. Thanks for the lovely support, everyone! It's why I write! Hope you enjoy.


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